A Conway homeowner is in fair condition after he was injured when his house exploded Monday.

Phil Murphy was taken to Maine Medical Center with serious injuries after the explosion, which leveled his house.

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Witness Mike Field said he had just returned from the post office with Murphy on Monday when they smelled gas. Field said Murphy opened the door, and they waited for the gas to dissipate. After 15 minutes, Murphy went back to the house.

"When he opened the door up, he walked inside -- for what reason, I don't know -- and the house just blew right up," Field said.

Field said he thought his friend was dead, but he then heard a welcome sound.

"We were yelling for him, and we heard him on the back side crawling out of the back window," Field said. "He's lucky to be alive. Very lucky."

Murphy's clothes still lie on the ground where firefighters cut them off. Investigators are waiting for a representative of the insurance company to arrive, and they will then use an excavator to remove the top of the structure.

Fire Chief Stephen Solomon said there's no doubt the explosion was caused by propane, and it happened in the basement.

"The presence of the actual flooring of the first floor being outside the structure tells us that the explosion took place below that level," he said.

Solomon said investigators still have to determine why it happened.

"Was it a failure of a piece of heating equipment, a bad valve, bad piping, or was it somebody doing something that may have caused the leak to happen?" Solomon said.

He said there's nothing suspicious about the explosions, and it's believed to be accidental.